Business Objects acquires Crystal Decisions for $820 million

CIRCUIT EC / Mumbai

Business Objects, a leading business intelligence (BI) solutions provider, has acquired Crystal Decisions (CD), one of the fastest growing vendors in the BI space, for a consideration of approximately $820 million. This acquisition makes Business Objects, which will hold 71 percent equity in the new entity, the undisputed leader in the BI solutions market.

Sanjay Deshmukh

Worldwide, the BI solutions market is divided into three segments depending on the user’s position in the management hierarchy—the executive user or the top management, the middle management and the information consumer. Business Objects' strengths lay in the top two slots, namely ad hoc querying and reporting and CEO dashboard alerts, while Crystal Decisions is the leading provider of parameterised reporting software. In terms of volumes the market for parameterised reporting, at this point of time, is much larger than that of the other segments. Said Sanjay Deshmukh, business development director, South Asia, Business Objects, "The acquisition was a natural step for Business Objects, as it now provides us with the opportunity to enter the market through Crystal Decisions and up-sell and cross-sell our other solutions."

Business Objects, which set up office in India in December 2002, boasts of 100 customers while Crystal Decisions, even though it doesn’t have a direct presence here, already has 200-plus customers in India. Together, this accounts for a total of 300 customers. According to Deshmukh, organisations like HDFC and Thomas Cook have already been using a combination of the two products, which is an indicator of the fact that there is a ready market for a combined offering. The company already accounts for more than 50 percent share of the BI market in India. The lead in India is much higher for Business Objects, as most competitors do not have a direct presence here.

Business Objects also stands to gain from Crystal's powerful range of distribution channels. Crystal Decisions has 350 OEM partners, including the likes of SAP, Microsoft, Hyperion and PeopleSoft. Business Objects will support all OEM agreements and will continue marketing products under the Crystal brand name.